A Year In The Heritage Gardens

Today is the first day of the blog journey for the Heritage Gardens. We thought it would be interesting to share with you what the garden year is like. There is a lot of planning as well as planting that goes on. It is interesting and hard work. There is great joy in standing in a garden surrounded by plants that you have grown from seed, tending and watching till they burst from the soil. There is great frustration when you are trying to weed and the mosquitoes are sucking your blood. There is great sorrow when your entire crop of heirloom corn is destroyed overnight by raccoons. Taken as a whole it is worth the time and effort to see the beautiful heirloom vegetables, fruits and herbs. To know that we are planting the same crops that were planted over a hundred years ago. To research and learn about the people who lived here for hundreds of years and who watched as new people came to settle the land. To read about the people who came here with nothing but what they could carry in their wagons, to a new and frightening home in the 'wilderness'. We are all connected.
Every time I walk in the gardens I am reminded of the past. I am part of the legacy left by the people who lived here. I wander around the cabins, there are two, and wonder what life was like for the families who built them. I walk to the wigwam and long for a time when life was closer to nature. But I do not delude myself into thinking it was easy or romantic. It was a hard life, dangerous.
We try to keep alive the stories of the people who lived in Boone County through the gardens. By doing so we hope to also educate future generations on the joys of working along side the natural world while growing food that is healthy and has minimal impact on the environment.